At the grade-school level, an understanding of the location, function and structure of the digestive system, for example, is easier to demonstrate than to describe using the sexless torso with its two-part intestinal tract. This torso, developed in Germany, where craftsmanship reigns supreme, comes on a durable stand. The head is a tripartite structure, disassembled along the sagittal plane, while the two lungs, two-part heart, stomach, liver with gall bladder and front halves of the kidneys and gall bladder make organ identification and location a matter of simply removing and replacing the parts, much like a puzzle. This tangible learning-by-repetition has been shown by educators to work best among young children, providing a lifetime understanding of human anatomy.



At the high-school level, and even into the first years of medical school, anatomy students will benefit from a unisex, 18-part torso. This model, with its open neck and back section running from the cerebellum, or base of the brain, to the coccyx (tailbone) offers a wealth of hands-on teaching and learning. Showing vertebrae and their separating discs, as well as the spinal cord, spinal nerves, vertebral arteries, this model has a removable thoracic vertebra, a six-part skull, both lungs, two lobes of the heart, stomach, liver, and a double-sectioned intestinal tract. It also has the front half of one kidney and the front half of the bladder and comes with torso guide measurements.

For those studying reproductive anatomy, 20-part male or female torsos, with heads, give a detailed picture of genital structures. On the male, this anatomical feature consists of a four-part, removable genital structure. The female model contains a three-part, removable insert complete with embryo, and both have sex-specific chest wall and rib structures. For cost-savings, a dual male/female anatomical model with the reproductive organs of both is also available.

Smaller desktop anatomical models, with or without heads, are also available and serve as a good first step toward anatomical understanding. For example, a desktop model would be useful to an internist who has a patient facing surgery or other difficult remedial treatment for disease.

The age of the Internet has made information readily available. In spite of that, more than a third of all adults and most children don't know where their kidneys are located. Since kidney stones are on the rise, particularly among children as a result of contaminants like melamine in food supplies, the use of an anatomical model which can be disassembled, and the parts handled, is a reassuring tool against surgical fears. This visible and tangible teaching method is especially useful among pre-adolescents facing either complete anesthesia and lithotripsy (blasting stones via sonar), or surgical intervention to insert a laparoscope for stone removal.

Finally, superbly detailed, durable plastic torso models are useful when medical students dissect their first cadaver, as the model serves to identify particular structures in a sequential pattern, eliminating much of the uncertainty as to the nature, size and shape of particular organs.